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The Curse of the Fog
The Curse of the Fog is the 2017 Halloween Special. Plot Halloween is coming once again, and preparations are in full swing for this big day. One morning, as Nicholas wakes up, he finds his friends laughing. They are remembering the time Nicholas was scared by Philip, which does not amuse Nicholas at all. Mr. Edwards then arrives to tell everyone their jobs. Later in the day, Nicholas begins to doze off when he gets another nightmare about Philip. He tries not to freak out, but can't help it. Unfortunately for him, Spencer and Cameron have seen everything and begin teasing him. Spencer even mentions a curse, which Nicholas questions himself. Nicholas later tells it to Lily and Daniel that evening after they join him. As that is happening, Lilim and Michael arrive with an excursion, the latter whom gets interested. Michael thinks it could be "The Curse of the Fog", which is a legend that some nights, fog can grow to levels so big that it can affect anything. An example is in 2012. As Cleveland is taking some empty hoppers one night, the fog blocks his vision of which track he is on, and it is not until it is too late that he realizes he is on the wrong track. He then derails. Michael presently warns Nicholas that this could happen if he is not careful enough. Nicholas somewhat disbelieves it, as fog is natural. A few minutes later, Pops pulls in, looking rather uncomfortable. He believes he saw an actual ghost. Before he has a chance to explain it, he has to go to the shed. As he pulls forward, Mr. Edwards announces that they have an overnight train to take to Wilmington, DE. Nicholas volunteers to do it, as he likes night runs. That night around 12:20, Nicholas meets Joe. Joe told him that smoke blew everywhere as he was working on a Chevy this morning and hopes it's no Halloween scare. Turbo pulls in quickly with the Capitol Limited. He warns them to take care, as he saw a bit of fog earlier. Sometime after Turbo leaves, Nicholas and Joe do the same. Their trip appears to go nice and smoothly until their signal is red. As they are stopped, everything goes pitch black and fog surrounds them. To make things worse, Nicholas' headlight turns off and when it goes back on, the signal constantly switches colors. Nicholas is so frightened that he and Joe start quickly. Five days later, Nicholas goes back to Highland Valley after working around Philadelphia. Suddenly he notices the sky turning gray and out of nowhere, he is covered in floating fog! When the fog wears off, Lily teases him for being afraid, and the freight cars join in. This further irritates Nicholas. That night, as he is doing a night run, the dispatcher is speaking on the radio in an unusual way. Then all of sudden, he starts laughing and then falls silent. Nicholas thinks the dispatcher went mad, and he tells it to his friends when he gets home. As Peter and Larry pass by on their way to Rocky Mount, NC, Larry teases Nicholas, only to be told off by Peter. A big surprise comes in the next morning. Mike and KCS Marie arrive and begin bothering Nicholas, Will, Lily, Lilim, Michael, and Marie arrive to defend Nicholas (while getting into an argument with Mike and KCS Marie). J.P. passes by with an autorack train and questions why there was a smoke machine besides the tracks. He also mentions that the one outside Latrobe is now gone. Nicholas has an idea. Spencer pulls up and explains that he set up the fog machine to scare Nicholas for fun. Nicholas' plan is to revenge on his friends for laughing at him. As he finds smoke machines, he sets them up in everyone's paths (after learning their next assignments). It starts as Marie (Amtrak) is at Cumberland, MD with the Capitol Limited. As Western Maryland 734 pulls into the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad Station, Marie is thrown off and teased by Dennis. Marie is upset, but keeps her dignity as she departs the station. She later passes Dennis, who is going slower as he ascends Sandpatch Grade. But she goes back to being scared when an owl hoots, followed by fog rolling down. When she passes Tiffany and Andy, who are pulling a train going in the opposite directions, she confuses them for a ghost train. Meanwhile just after Marie's experience, Shawn and Will are next in line to get one. They are pulling a westbound intermodal train through Ohio during the night. Shawn thinks the fresh breeze is nice, but after Will says that it feels like freezing rain, Shawn catches on. Just as he does, fog comes out of nowhere and blocks his vision! They are later brought to a stop by a red signal (likely because of Shawn's cab signal). As they are stopped, Shawn's bell turns on suddenly and his headlights start flickering. Through the dense fog, they see a set of small headlights approaching, which turns out to be a car. Their signal then turns green, so the two frightened engines hurry away. Finally, it is Jordan and Josiah's turn. They are pulling a westbound manifest through Tidewater that night when Josiah unexpectedly sees a blanket of mist covering them. It gets worse until their surroundings vanish around them! All they see now is hallucinations of a ghost and some zombies. Everything abruptly returns to normal, but the two engines do not understand what had happened. The next day, Will, Shawn, Josiah, Jordan, Marie, Cure Aqua, and Pops are insulted by other engines for their freak-outs. A couple days later at Highland Valley, they have a meeting about it. Nicholas happens to be listening and now feels remorse for his actions. When he gathers the courage, he tells everyone the truth about what he had done. They are mostly understanding, but Will wants to pay out Spencer, as he was responsible for the events. That Halloween evening, Mr. Edwards asks Spencer, Mike, and KCS Marie to collect empty gondolas, take them to Cresson Steel for loading, and take them to Industrial Wasteland so that CSX can take them to Edgar Thompson Steel Works in the morning for Union Railroad. Prior to departure, Will had already told Spencer's crew about his plan, who agreed. The plan appears to be working as the engines are nervous while waiting for their gondolas to be filled with scrap. They are then thrown off by a rustling noise coming from a pile of scrap, which turns out to only be a squirrel coming out from hiding. They later depart Cresson, PA with loaded gondolas. As they cross over a bridge, the engineer secretly throws a rock from the cab. This startles Spencer, Mike, and KCS Marie, who want to go faster. The three engines are still nervous when they get home later. Nicholas tells that them it's already November 1st and Lily tells them that they watched spooky Thomas and Friends episodes. Spencer, Mike, and KCS Marie are so frightened that they do not want to wake up until morning. They do, however, when they think the engines aren't looking, just to make sure they are still there. Characters * Nicholas * Will * Shawn * Josiah * Lily * Lilim * Mr. Edwards * May * Benjamin * Nicholas (W&LE) * Michael * Spencer * Cameron * Daniel * Cleveland * Pops * Joe * Turbo * Neville * Arthur * Marie * Peter * Larry * Mike * Marie (Amtrak) * Marie (KCS) * J.P. * Cure Aqua * Dennis * Josh * Tiffany * Andy * Jordan * Dave * Waidy * Andrew (NS) * Caillou * Jose * Murase * Boris * Cure Dream * Benson * Jared * Bridget * NS C44-9W #9349 (not named) * Amtrak P42DC #133 (not named) * Adam (does not speak) * Philip (does not speak) * Skips (does not speak) * Jalieel (cameo) * Meg (cameo) * NS Kevin (cameo) * Parker (cameo) * Kara (cameo) * Kai (cameo) * Ely (cameo) * John (cameo) * Toad (cameo) * Mario (cameo) * Peach (cameo) * Bowser (cameo) * Mort (cameo) * Dark Dream (cameo) * Lucas (cameo) * Quips (cameo) * Mr. Soldan (mentioned) * Kyle (mentioned) * Trevor (mentioned) * Jack (mentioned) * Mr. Machich (mentioned) * Luigi (mentioned) Locations * Highland Valley * CSX Keystone Subdivision * NS Pittsburgh Line * Industrial Wasteland * Tidewater * NS Lake Division District * NS Chicago Line * Cresson Steel Trivia * This episode has a bit in common with the TUGS episode "Ghosts" and the Thomas and Friends episode "Duncan Gets Spooked", though neither were the inspiration. * This episode marks the first of a few things: ** First appearances of Jaleel and Mort. ** Turbo, KCS Marie, Jose, and Murase's first speaking roles. ** First time the Bandicam watermark is mostly hidden. ** First time Joe has a human voice actor. ** First time fog effects are used. ** It is revealed Nicholas hates being reminded of CGI Thomas. * The events of The Haunting from Canada and Poltergeist are referenced. * Stock footage from The Haunting from Canada is used. * The audio of Cleveland yelling "No no no no no NOOOO!" was recorded from Family Guy. * The NS C44-9W trailing behind Pops and the Amtrak P42DC trailing behind Turbo and Neville are reused from The Good, The Bad, and The Annoying and Edwards vs. Amtrak. * The audio of freight cars laughing at Nicholas is recorded from Thomas and Friends. * It is revealed that Mike was leased to Pennsylvania after Mr. Machich was fed up with his behaviour. * The part where Shawn, Jordan, and Josiah say "disgraceful", "disgusting", and "despicable" is a reference to Thomas and Friends. * It is revealed that the reason Cameron crashed into Jordan in April Fools Day is that J.P. jammed his brakes. * When Mr. Edwards says "This is not a railroad that has train with faces! We operate even if it is Halloween!", it is a reference to The Marysville Railroad Stories Episode 2. Goofs * Shawn says "were we talking about last Halloween" instead of "we were talking about last Halloween". * When Daniel talks to Lily, the camera almost goes back to the latter for a split second. * When Lily asks Nicholas if he really believes what Spencer told him, Michael and Lilim appear to go from the station track to the yard in just a few seconds as Lily is still talking. * Michael's dialogue is rushed when he first tells the story. * Pops also has rushed dialogue when he first speaks. * Turbo pronounces "Turbo-tastic" wrong. * In some fog scenes, the fog doesn't take up the whole screen. Also in some scenes, the Bandicam logo is barely visible, rather than being completely visible or completely hidden. * In a few scenes, Mike's voice is too loud. * KCS Marie pronounces "leased" wrong. * When Will, Lily, Lilim, Michael, and Marie stop, Marie and Will are ahead of Lily, Lilim, and Michael. But in the next scene, they are all side by side. * A Reading and Northern hopper has a shadow above it. * Dennis' ditchlights flash too late when he blows his horn. * When Shawn and Will come to a stop, they pass the signals. But when they get spooked, they are in front of the signals. * Cure Dream's voice is a bit loud. * When Spencer, Mike, and KCS Marie are at Cresson, the sky doesn't look completely dark. * The scene fades too quickly between Spencer saying "Me too" and the rustling from the scrap pile. Special Category:Season 3 Category:Specials Category:Holiday Specials Category:Specials that involve a crash